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Squire and Countess class extensive guide/Exp and mana farming
Squire/Countess - which will profit later? In my opinion you should take Countess, her speed caps much higher (while all characters cap at 99 speed skill) and they have the same towers. The only real drawback for her is lower hp than Squire's, but with wise blocking and Call to Arms usage you won't really need higher HP. I've started with Squire, but when I was finishing leveling on insane, and started nightmare I was frustrated by his low run speed. Trust me, You'll need more later! Leveling 'What you should know' To level up faster you will have to meet certain conditions: #Don't get hit #Don't let Crystal to take damage #Only harm enemies with weapons/skills, not towers (this of course won't work if you are builder) #After 7.20 - ALWAYS play Hardcore Mode (50% more experience after each wave) If you don't get hit you will get exp multiplier at the end of the wave, same goes for Crystal not taking any damage and damaging monsters only with weapon/skills. When leveling builder you can get exp multiplier twice if you won't get hit nor crystal will, this will speed whole process up. Also to level up fast disable in options auto showing hero menu when leveling up, and lvl up when you will have a break. Don't pick any equip up between the waves, do it in combat mode, they will auto sell anyway. Try to lower your non-combat time as much as you can and you will hit lvl 70 and then 74 in an few hours. 'Just start playing' Start is pretty simple, just fight your way through a campaign to lvl 30+ and until you will reach Ramparts, you will unlock your towers, you will get used to this hero class. You can then start farming Ramparts on Hard, and after level 40-50 - on Insane (it's different for every player and his tower stats, just try insane when you feel like it). Of course if someone can boost you - go for it, but if you are new, try to feel the game first and play alone. 'The Ramparts: levels 30-70' Layout for Ramparts is simple, before first wave only thing you should place perfectly is harpoon #1, because it will have to kill Wyverns flying from two directions. Rest is as it follows: 2x bouncer #1 (one of them will be sold after first wave), 2x Slice N Dice #1, and mentioned above harpoon #1. If this def can't handle - try lower difficulty or get yourself better equipment. After first wave sell bouncer #1 from the middle and place rest of defenses, remember that two bottom harpoons are not necessary, also topmost barricade/bouncer don't have to be placed at all. But if you have some DUs left and your towers are weak build them just for backup. You can experiment a little using knowledge you have obtained reading 2nd part of this article: Tower effective usage and tips and place two Bouncers instead of harpoons where two orange "B" are on this layout. Below are pictures how to place first harpoon, and two cannonballs on top (placing them in this way is important, so they won't let anything go alive). Ramparts Hard and then Insane will give you nice items (lvl 60 items on Insane), and really decent exp per time spent on it. In my opinion this map (solo) is second after Glitterhelm Insane played with four players for exp and mana farming. 'Get Yourself a weapon: level 60+' That means farming Ogre Crush challenge on hard, you will be awarded The High Five - really great starter weapon. Defenses layout is really simple there, put SnD/Bouncer/Spikes in front of middle doors, 2-3 cannons behind it (or cannon/harpoon mix), then do the same on the sides (top floor) and o bottom map. Like Challenge name says: ogres will crush on your defenses. Feel free to modify this layout, image only shows where to place it, so it will work. What i did was farming until i got decent stat H5 with good Poison base damage, then i upgraded it. I know that upgrading elemental damage isn't great idea, but my poison H5 was crushing most mobs with one hit and when something left - defenses handlet it. In my opinion leveling elemental damage is good for hard and insane difficulties. Another layout i have tested with much higher stats on my Countess is for farming Ogre Party Hat on Nightmare. With such defenses i have managed to complete Ogre Crush NM in 1:45. Only requirement is top middle harpoons have to reach right and left ogre when they are done with middle one. Even when they can't with your current stats it will always be good idea to farm Ogre Crush NM when you'll want to equip your monk (if you have one) with decent weapon. Also i've noticed, that better weapons dropped for me when i was hitting "G" (start combat phase) just after map loaded when i was collecting mana, and first harpoon i've built was just at the moment when ogre appeared. (also every time combat ended i was starting new combat phase without a break). 'Glitterhelm Caverns: levels 70-74' Again you will have to start by checking if your Harpoons can one hit Wyverns, if so, go for Glitter (after some changes made to harpoons its not required, but surely will help). This map is really frustrating for a squire with such low run speed, so again i strongly recommend you to level Countess instead. Because this layout (especially with lower towers stats) requires some monk's help i suggest you to level one up. Monk don't have to be even lvl 70, just some aura damage and hp will do it's job, you can boost your monk on Ramparts insane to lvl 60 or so, it will do. I won't be writing long guides, just check image on right, that's the way you should lay down your defenses, and you also can check my video below with commentary on how to do it step by step (i did some things little differently there because my towers are pretty decent, but for starters use layout from image on right). Mana Farming 'It's a NIGHTMARE! Or is it?' Squire have really high DU usage and this will be often a problem, but this is rewarded for physical-only damage, good damage from most towers, and resistant barricades. But even with "high damage and hp" towers it will be hard for your first steps on Nightmare. Thankfully you should have some mana after farming Glitterhelm, so you can buy yourself some armors. There are lots of 1-2million mana mythicals in players shops. Those shouldn't be bought as you will soon farm them yourself. But, if it will help you in your opinion - buy it. Also farm yourself App or Hunt Guardian with at least 30^ so it will boost four or five towers. You just need some stats to do at least SOMETHING to monsters on Nightmare. Good news is - you can now go and try Nightmare, yeah that's right, Endless Spires first wave (read about it in next chapter). What you will need by now is somewhere around 100 tower stats to try first waves of Spires. You don't need good weapon yet, your High Five with upgraded elemental damage should be enough, but for future notice in weapon look for nice tower stats and good base physical damage (like 1500-2000) and upgrade it to 8-12k. Remember that best weapon you can get is Frost Blade, Katana, Sand Blade, Sea Sword or smaller ones like Backstabber or Shield/Gauntlet type because those are fastest. I wouldn't recommend axes and hammers, those are slowest squire weapons in game and i strongly believe that faster weapon is much more potent than higher damage slow ones (for sure it will deal with spiders better). 'First attempts: Endless Spires' First thing i have tried was Endless Spires on Hardcore Nightmare (yes, hardcore, because normal mode will give you even crappier items). You will probably farm only first wave here, but still it can drop Myth or two that you'll be interested in, or just sell it for some mana to tavernkeeper. And good news! You can farm first wave of HC NM Spires with Squire/Countess on level 70+ if you have decent Godly items. The point in this are chests. Mobs usually drop really crappy equipment, so you need to survive somehow first wave. If you can manage 2nd wave, great, but trust me, don't bother with 3rd with your equip. Of course you will become better with tme and first 3 waves you will easily solo, but until then.... Using layout on right put Spikes and 3-4 harpoons, after first wave set up rest of defenses. Decent App or Hunt guardian really helps here (and upgrading/repairing of course). After each wave open chests, pick up what you think is worth your attention, rest will auto-sell on entering new wave's combat phase, so just restart level after opening all chests and starting combat phase of wave you can't manage. And RUN! Run from spiders, try to lure them under your harpoons, kill them if you can but don't get slowed. 'Again equip upgrades' You have some almost decent equipment now, but you are in a dead end and can't go on better maps/challenges, and mana from first 2-3 Endless Spires waves is simply not enough. That's pretty hard time because you will need to buy yourself much better armor now and you aren't sure if you can afford it. You will need now: #Set of Mythicals for bonus, remember that you can't mix mythical with godly or lower, if you want Mythical Leather set, you have to get all four Mythical Leather parts of armor. #About 350-500 tower stats. 'Trying more: Raining Goblins, Ogre Crush, Uber (lifestream hollow) Monster Fests' Lets start with Raining Goblins now (fortunately you won't need resists here). The layout for this map is really simple, start with bouncers like on image, after wave starts you will have to quickly kill something and add numbers 2 and 3. You have 2 options there: bouncers, or harpoons pointing right at points 4 and 5 where most mobs spawn). Then add Barricade or another Bouncer on number 1. So your options are (all harpoons facing right on map): #3 bouncers on points 1,2,3, and maybe harpoon pointing at crystal at point 6. #3 harpoons on points 2,3,6 and spike barricade on point 1. #3 bouncers at 1,2,3 and two ensnare auras at 4 and 5 (and one elsewhere if you want Either way - I've tried all above options and all works well. My favorite is option 2 with 3 harpoons and Spikes. Now you only need to collect mana and upgrade/repair. This map isn't too good for mana farming, but i strongly believe that it's much less time consuming than spires you were doing for some time, and it have potential of dropping nice Goblin Overlord's Charge (you will always get it after completing this challenge). This method is slow, but for sure pretty easy for squire. ---- Next option is Ogre Crush Challenge for Ogre Party Hat rewarded at the end. I've done it quite some times just because i wanted to drop decent Hat for my monk (having decent 70+ monk now can be really useful for Endless Spires tactic i will show you soon). Tower layout for Ogre Crush is pretty much the same as it were earlier when we were farming The High Five on hard, but for sure you will have to run a lot more than on Goblins challenge to aid and repair towers. Second layout for Ogre Crush i have posted earlier works really great here. Again, for this challenge you won't need resists because if you want to repair/upgrade blockades you always can stand behind an ogre attacking it so you won't get hurt. But App/Hunt Guardian surely will help a lot. ---- And now something I've done to get some decent mythicals and some nice amount of mana: NIGHTMARE Über Monster Fest (and/or Über Lifestream Hollow MonsterFest). There is no tactic for a solo squire here. Just collect mana from chest and build some towers. Start with 1-2 cannon or harpoon near each spawn point, then going to the middle build more offensive towers with some barricades or bouncers. To do it with crappy equipment you will have to set up good offense that will be destroyed on the mobs way (but before that it will kill as many monsters as it can), and then build more during the wave. Kill the spiders, build towers where ogres or bigger pack of other mobs are, build build until at the end of the wave you will be surrounded by your def attacked by last one or two ogres and some other mobs. Honestly this "tactic" is so chaotic that it makes sense. You will have to kill spiders spread on the map to finish up within time limit tho. In those Monster Fests challenges mana gain is pretty decent (4m+) considering 5-7 minutes for wave and time before and after first wave (never, NEVER bother with 2nd wave with "starter" myths). Also you can find some nice Mythicals there, maybe not too great, but still good. Monster Fest require you to have better resists because you will have to run through packs of monster few times. 'Back for MORE: Endless Spires again! Over 100m in less than an hour' Ok. There goes nice farm! At last some decent numbers. We will have to go back to Endless Spires, again Nightmare Hardcore, but now we will finish it! One full Spires run on NM Hardcore will net you 20m+ for maximum 12 minutes of play through (after some upgrades I'm doing it in 9 minutes). If you are lucky first waves will grant you 4-6m with auto selling items, and after last wave check your mana, then "Return to Tavern", there will be 10-15m more. I'm recommending you to use layout similar to the one i showed you for farming first wave of Spires because every wave will be similar: http://ddplanner.com/?l=5225,endless-spires-nm-hc-with-low-quality-myths You will have to start with all Spikes, then add two harpoons for top stairs and two on the sides (one for West, one for East). During first wave build up rest of harpoons and cannons for offensive power. After first wave gather all mana from floor and chests and build up harpoons for wyverns (bouncers near crystals are backups for wyverns, if your harpoons can't kill wyverns, some of them will be killed by bouncer - soon you wont be needing this). Now it's simple matter of upgrading, some repairing and aiding harpoons in killing ogres and djinns with your Guardian. At some point ogres from both spawn points, NW and SE, will spawn at same time, you will have to be extra careful then. What this tactic requires apart stats: *'App/Hunt Guardian' - and that's important! +3/+4 towers and ~20 boost, it's because you will be aiding towers when they are attacking ogres, without Guardian boost killing an ogre in last wave could take ages! *350-500 tower stats - more you have, easier it will be. *Some Repairing/Upgrading *You should have some resists by now, but when doing this layout right you will rarely get hit so it's not requirement. Why i think this layout is good? *Every Spider spawn point is guarded by harpoon so there is almost no option of slowing your towers. *Harpoons set like that will guard against Djinns very well. A video of me doing NM Spires (using my archival layout, before tweaks and above all, before Djinns) 'What next?' Farm, get yourself some good items, then you will be ready for anything. Before i've tried survivals i had 1100 Tower HP, 1500 Tower Damage, ~500 Tower Range, ~800 Tower Attack Rate. You can try survivals much earlier, but in group with guardians, solo is lot harder. And above all else, read last part of this guide containing some ideas and survival NM layouts (and more): Squire and Countess class extensive guide: NM Survivals Category:Squire Category:Squire guides Category:Countess Category:Countess guides Category:Guides